Equitable Life Payment Scheme

Lord Deighton: My honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	As of 31st December 2013 the Equitable Life Payment Scheme has made payments totalling £816 million to 717,600 policyholders. The Scheme has also published a further progress report, which can be found at http://equitablelifepaymentscheme.independent.gov.uk/.
	Over the coming months the Scheme will continue to make payments and any policyholders who have not been contacted should call the Scheme directly on 0300 0200 150 to check their eligibility for a payment. To support this, the Scheme has implemented a new system in their call centre which allows most policyholders to verify their identity on the telephone and thus receive any payment due more quickly, usually within 2 weeks.
	The Scheme remains committed to locating as many of the remaining policyholders as possible before it closes in 2015. In addition to the recent advertising campaign which resulted in around 20,000 people calling the Scheme, the Scheme has also identified enhanced methods of policyholder tracing. It is anticipated that these new approaches will result in thousands more policyholders who have not already identified themselves to the Scheme being paid.